According to new data provided exclusively to Internet Retailer from comScore, there has been a tectonic shift in the way consumers spend their time online. In October 2014, 52% of the time consumers spent online occurred within smartphone and tablet apps, 40% in web browsers on desktops and laptops, and 8% spent in web browsers on smartphones and tablets.

According to a recent blog by Matt Pace, VP of Millward Brown Digital's financial services, retail and consumer products practices, despite recent stumbles with investors and cell phone shoppers, Amazon remains the dominant player in US ecommerce. As the top spot for online shopping, Amazon's reach is hard to overstate. But the target is well worth aiming at!

Holiday sales as compared to overall annual retail sales have been trending downward for about a decade. Holiday sales in 2013, at $663.5 billion, were 18.7% of overall retail sales, well below the peak of 19.6% seen in 2004. However, online shopping is prolific this year.

According to Kyle Lacy, Director of Global Content Marketing & Research at the ExactTarget Marketing Cloud, in one of the breakout sessions at Connections 2014, there are 7 Technology Trends as well as recommendations for how brands can use these trends to enhance their customer journeys.

According to the comScore digital world forecasts, reporting the U.S. retail e-commerce spending from desktop computers for the first 44 days of the November-December 2014 holiday season, $42.5 billion has been spent online, marking a 15% increase versus the corresponding days last year.

According to new research from Nielsen, today's Millennials are the most racially diverse generation in U.S. history, with nearly 43% identifying as non-white. Varying estimates place this group's purchasing power anywhere between $125 billion and $890 billion annually, while some estimates attribute these young shoppers with $200 billion of direct buying power plus an additional $500 billion in indirect influence

According to the StrongView 2015 Marketing Trends Survey, in which global marketers voiced the importance of getting more out of their eMail efforts by leveraging data and automation to drive more relevant and engaging programs, 61% say email marketing remains the top target for increased investment in 2015, and 93% plan to maintain or increase investment in email for the 2014/2015 holiday shopping season.

According to BeFrugal's new survey, the holiday season causes stress in over five in six Americans. Of those stressed, 65% find crowds of shoppers stressful, and 55% are stressed when finding parking and battling traffic.

According to the findings of McKinsey's latest Consumer Sentiment Survey, because inflation-adjusted median household income has dropped over the past few years, consumers are feeling reluctant to increase spending and are instead remaining thrifty. While things aren't getting worse, they're not getting much better either, says the report.